


The Hungry Dead

by Kita_the_Spaz



Category: Naruto
Genre: Blood and Gore, M/M, Original Character Death(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 17:51:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 15,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3077381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kita_the_Spaz/pseuds/Kita_the_Spaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Owned by a Cat on the prompt of Genma and Raidou come back injured from a mission and seeing ghosts. When it becomes obvious that it isn't a prank, Tsunade calls in Kakashi and Iruka to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Broken Jounin and Crazy Chuunin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ownedbyacat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ownedbyacat/gifts).



> What started out as a short ghost story developed this plot of plotty doom and turned into this monster. I hope you’re satisfied. XD 
> 
> Takes place during the reconstruction arc, before the Great Ninja war.
> 
> Many, many thanks to My Betas, M and K, most especially M who made me explain myself thoroughly until I got my head on straight and was able to see where I needed to go to get where I'd been.
> 
> Warnings for gore, mentions of torture and the loss of a child. Feel free to run away screaming now... No really, you can leave now... Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

“Dammit, I need those sedatives in here!” Tsunade’s roar echoed through the corridor, fully loud enough to shake paint from the walls and plaster from the ceiling.

As it was doing, four corridors down and one floor above, where a reluctant copy-nin was being treated for a major concussion and seven broken bones in his right hand. Flecks of plaster rained down on the three people in the small examination room.

Hatake Kakashi jerked and cursed, despite the vice-like grip on his skull that kept him firmly seated on the examining table. His head was killing him, and Tsunade’s angry voice was driving into his brain with the force of a tidal wave.

Leaf-green eyes glared him down and Haruno Sakura twisted full pink lips into a scowl that was dangerously reminiscent of Tsunade’s _‘you-are-an-idiot-and-I-will-now-tell-you-why-at-the-top-of-my-lungs-while-doing-immoral-painful-and-possibly-illegal-things-to-you’_ glower. “Sit still and shut up or I’ll save you the trouble of fixing this concussion by breaking your rock-headed skull!” she barked, before adding an entirely begrudging, “Kakashi-sensei.”

A soft voice from somewhere behind and to the right of him added in a dangerous tone, “And I will take great pleasure in watching her do it.”

“Iruka-sen—” Kakashi’s protest was cut short.

“What part of shut up did you fail to comprehend?” Sakura snarled, fingers tightening painfully on his head.

“Oww,” Kakashi whined softly under his breath and tried to pull his head out of her increasingly painful grip.

Sakura was having none of it. “Sit _still_!”

Kakashi might have taken pride in how strong she’d become, if only she weren’t using that strength on him.

Her fingers tightened once more in warning before loosening. Green chakra gathered around Sakura’s hands, spreading out to wash over his head like a tide of cool water, leaving blessed relief in its wake.

Sighing, Kakashi forced his body to relax and soak in the healing. Chakra healing always worked best if you didn’t fight it, but Kakashi freely admitted to being a stubborn bastard and refusing to admit to weakness. He’d never say aloud that he was grateful that she had expertly wiped away the doubled vision and the nausea, but he met her eyes with a nod and small smile.

Sakura let out her breath and released his head. “That should do it, but if you have any problems at all, come back to see me or Tsunade-sama. Head injuries are _nothing_ to play with.” She picked up his carefully splinted hand, but directed her next words over Kakashi’s shoulder. “If anything goes wrong or even appears to be wrong—”

“I’ll be sure to bring him here,” Iruka put in, rising to his feet and stepping close enough to rest a firm hand on Kakashi’s shoulder. “Whether he likes it or not.” His fingers tightened in warning.

Kakashi huffed under his breath and shot a narrow-eyed glare up at his friend, regular annoyance, and occasional lover. 

Iruka had invited himself into Kakashi’s life shortly after Naruto had departed for parts unknown with Jiraiya, and had not invited himself back out even when Naruto had returned. He’d come upon Kakashi at the memorial one morning in the the gray, pre-dawn hours, while the sky wept the tears Kakashi could not shed. 

Kakashi had been trying but failing to reconcile his mistakes. The dead didn’t judge, but they offered neither comfort nor absolution.

Iruka had offered no pity or recriminations, only holding his own umbrella over the man crouched there at the foot of the stone, getting soaking wet in the process. 

When Kakashi had finally dragged his attention back from the morass of regrets, he’d looked up at a damp, bedraggled Academy teacher who was patiently waiting.

Iruka had said nothing, only offered a calm smile and the handle of his umbrella. When Kakashi didn’t reach for it, Iruka had huffed, rolled his eyes and shoved the handle into Kakashi’s fingers with a wry smile. Wet and seemingly not caring, Iruka had whirled and set out in the direction of the Academy with ground-eating bounds.

Startled, Kakashi had very nearly dropped the umbrella, only training and cat-like reflexes keeping it from hitting the muddy ground. He’d found his gaze lingering in the direction the sensei had vanished, and discovered his feet taking him there without a conscious decision on his part. He’d arrived at the Academy shortly after the muster bell had rung and all the students had scampered in out of the rain. Standing in the rain, unsure of why he was there, he’d found direction when that familiar scarred face had peered out a window and shouted, “Konohamaru, if you are not in this classroom in the next four seconds, I will personally hang you upside down by your toenails and make you scrub the entire Hokage Monument with a toothbrush while doing so!”

After Iruka had retreated into the classroom, followed by a red-faced and mutinous-looking child, Kakashi made himself a perch on a tree near the window. All day, he’d watched Iruka patiently handle some twenty-odd children, using a variety of methods, ranging from threats and subtle tricks to outright bribery. They had all worked amazingly well, and the little hellions obviously adored the teacher. Kakashi had begun to get a glimmer of how Iruka had managed to pound a few lessons into Naruto’s rock-skulled head.

When the final bell rang, a horde of screaming, pushing, and laughing children poured out of the academy and scattered to the four winds.

Iruka stuck his head out the window again, one eyebrow arched, and looked directly at where Kakashi was hiding. “Dare I even ask why you’ve been lurking outside my classroom since this morning?”

Disgruntled, for he was sure he’d hidden his chakra carefully, Kakashi unfolded himself from the sheltered nook he’d occupied, ignoring the rain trickling through the leaves. “Mah, I came to return your umbrella.” He offered the umbrella across the intervening space between his branch and the window.

Iruka regarded the umbrella with an unimpressed look before casting a jaundiced glance up at the drizzling clouds. “It’s still raining,” he observed in the same tone he’d used earlier to tell a student exactly why one should not attempt to pick their nose with a kunai.

“Ah, so it is.” Kakashi attempted nonchalance, but Iruka obviously wasn’t buying it.

“So you hid in a tree... in the rain, mind you... all day to return an umbrella.” Iruka folded his arms on the windowsill and regarded Kakashi again, his brown eyes filled with something akin to exasperation. 

“Sounds about right,” Kakashi opined, shrugging lackadaisically.

“While it is still raining,” Iruka repeated, one side of his mouth twisted up in a rueful smile.

“Yep.”

“Were you dropped on your head as an infant, or have you just taken a few too many jutsus to the brain?” Iruka asked in a brightly interested tone. “Because the only person I know crazier than that is Anko-chan, and every hidden village out there knows she’s batshit insane. Her picture in the Bingo books of those other villages has the heading _‘Do Not Engage,’_ with the sub-heading _‘Because she might follow you home and camp out in your living room.’_ ” 

Kakashi chuckled weakly.

Iruka propped his chin on a fist and tilted his head slightly. He sighed. “Did it occur to you, I lent you my umbrella with the intention of you returning it at some point later... when it’s not raining? When I might have invited you in for tea?”

Kakashi had been left speechless. That day had marked the beginning of his involvement with Iruka, a relationship that he still wasn’t sure how to define. They fought and argued, went out for drinks together, had fucking amazing sex, and drove each other half-mad on a regular basis.

Today, for example, Kakashi had returned from a mission and handed over his mission report (which he’d really hoped was acceptable considering the doubled vision he’d had while writing it) and had every intention of going home and crawling into his bed until he’d felt less like shit. No go. Iruka had taken one look at him, handed off the report he was reading to another desk chuunin and risen from his seat. He’d taken a firm grip on Kakashi’s wrist and announced to the Mission Room in general that _‘as some shinobi are obviously incapable of looking after themselves, it falls upon the rest to make sure they go to the hospital and not bleed out on the floor of the Mission Room.’_

“But I’m not bleeding,” Kakashi had protested tiredly. He should know, he’d bound up the head wound himself.

Iruka hadn’t looked amused. “Judging by the way you’re blinking and staring slightly to the left of my actual position, you are obviously seeing more than one of me, and I’m fairly certain your hand isn’t supposed to be purple and three times the size of the left one.”

Kakashi shook himself out of the memory of Iruka forcibly transporting him to the hospital and looked down at where his right hand was wrapped in bright green threads of healing chakra. Already the swelling had gone down and the sharp, bright stabs of pain had dulled to a distant ache.

Sakura let out a breath and released the weaving; it glimmered for a moment before being absorbed into Kakashi’s bruised flesh. “There,” she sighed, deftly re-splinting his hand and wrapping the whole in clean bandages to cushion it. “That should do it. Don’t do anything with that hand though, the chakra speeds the bone-healing, but right now it’s very fragile. Just making a fist could rebreak those bones, Kakashi-sensei, so I expect you to be careful.” She rose from her stool and planted her gloved fists on her hips and glared down at him.

Kakashi meekly ducked his head, reminded again just how much she’d grown from the genin she used to be.

Sakura opened her mouth like she wanted to say something else, but just huffed out a breath and picked up a prescription pad. “I’ll give you a prescription for a pain-killer and anti-inflammatory; I expect you to take them as needed and not leave them mouldering in your bathroom— like the last batch Tsunade-sama gave you when you broke every _frikkin’_ rib you have!” She wrote quickly and ripped off the top sheet.

Iruka took the prescription from her. “He’ll take it,” he said simply.

Sakura smiled, dimples forming at the corners of her generous lips. “I knew I could count on you, Iruka-sensei.”

It stung a little— okay, a lot— if Kakashi were to be honest about it, but he hid it behind a nonchalant shrug. “I’ll just be going, then.”

Iruka offered Sakura a quick, thankful bow and quickly caught up with Kakashi in the hallway. He fell into step with Kakashi’s longer stride, eyes darting left and right in automatic assessment of the territory before fastening on the tight line of Kakashi’s jaw beneath his mask. “Kakashi-san?” he asked quietly.

Kakashi turned his head to spare him a glance, because as always, Iruka had placed himself on Kakashi’s blind side, just a pace ahead of him so they could converse easily. It was a position that put Iruka between any danger and Kakashi’s perceptible weak spot. He had adopted it almost from that first day in the rain.

“What is it?” Iruka’s voice was low and concerned.

Behind the mask, Kakashi chewed on his lower lip with aggravation, sharp canines nearly breaking the skin. He really didn’t want to discuss it, and while Iruka would respect that, the man had the annoying habit of squirreling things out of him anyway.

“She counts on you,” Kakashi muttered, dark eye focused on the distance. Not the real one; the hallway’s end, but the distance in time and space from when Sakura had been... a child. “She knows that she can...” Unlike himself, who had failed her. He’d been too concerned with the two over-powered boys, her teammates, to pay attention to her. When everything had shattered, proving once and for all that he was not meant to teach genin, he'd very quietly gone to Tsunade. He'd begged her to take Sakura as a student; to make her something more than he, a failure of a teacher, was capable of. He frowned and shoved his good hand through his hair.

He heard Iruka heave a sigh and looked up in time to see Iruka scan the hall before reaching out and grabbing Kakashi’s undamaged arm to pull him into a shadowed alcove occupied by an aging vending machine. Surprised, but not alarmed, he let Iruka shove him up against the machine’s humming side.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Iruka hissed, eyes burning with irritation. “She knows that she can count on you to give your all for her and for Konoha. She knows just how much of yourself you put into protecting all of us. And she worries about you. Worries that one day you’ll give too much and she won’t be able to bring you back.”

Kakashi felt his tightened muscles relax and he lowered his head until his hitai-ate clinked softly against Iruka’s. “Thank you,” he breathed.

Iruka sighed again, his breath warm on Kakashi’s skin. “Let’s pick up your meds and get out of here.” His hand briefly cupped Kakashi’s masked cheek.

Kakashi smiled and followed Iruka out of the alcove and down the hospital corridor to the stairs.

They had almost reached the next level down when a hysterical scream ripped through the air, shattering the quiet of the hospital.

Kakashi snapped his head up, alerting on the sound like one of his ninken. He knew that voice, even as distorted with rage and fear as it was. “Namiashi?”

Beside him, Iruka tensed and pointed at the floor below them. “It’s coming from there.”

Kakashi vaulted over the railing and shoved through the stairwell door. With that sound barrier gone, it was clear the screams were close. Kakashi skidded around a corner, taking it too close as his healing concussion protested the far-too-rapid movements.The door abruptly being flung open in his way did him no favors either. He tried to dodge it, but his still-shaky balance failed him and he wobbled.

A firm hand closed around his bicep and dragged him upright and also halted his forward motion. 

“Steady now. As I recall, I sent you to Sakura for a concussion; did you run away from her?” Despite the shrieks still piercing the air, Tsunade’s voice was calm. There were lines of strain around her eyes and mouth, and a frown creased her lips, but her demeanor was ever that of a professional.

“No,” Iruka answered for him, stepping close enough for Kakashi to use him for support if he needed to. He didn’t offer help, for which Kakashi was grateful, just stood ready to if it was needed. “We were on our way down to the pharmacy for his medication, Tsunade-sama.”

“Ah,” Tsunade’s frown eased just a bit. “Good.”

 _“Get away from me!”_ The shout rang in the confined space of the hallway, a mixture of fear and anger resonating in the words.

“Dammit.” Tsunade pinched the bridge of her nose, the frown lines around her mouth deepening. “Brat, go home and get some rest, that’s a order. Unfortunately, I have more troubles to deal with right now.” She turned away, reaching for the door next to the one she’d emerged from.

“Tsunade...” Kakashi hesitated, torn between his need to obey orders and his desire to find out the truth. “Is that... Namiashi-san?”

He’d been on missions with Namiashi Raidou before, including the fateful mission that had resulted in the shiny welts of burn scarring across the other man’s face.While they weren’t close friends, he still considered Raidou a comrade and friend. If it really was him breaking into hysterical screams, Kakashi wanted— no, _needed_ — to find out why.

Tsunade paused and turned her attention back to him, her changeable hazel eyes measuring him; weighing him.

“Yes,” she sighed at last. “Come with me. Perhaps you can get through to him.” She pulled open the door, fingers white-knuckled on the knob.

“Begging your pardon, Hokage-sama,” Iruka interjected quietly. “Wouldn’t Shiranui Genma be a better choice for that? He and Raidou-san are... partners.” High color tinted Iruka’s cheeks.

Kakashi knew Iruka’d had the misfortune of walking in on the _partners_ more than once. They both seemed to take great delight in flustering the fiery-tempered chuunin.

Tsunade shot Iruka a sideways glance, her mouth tightening. “Believe me, sensei, it would have been my first choice, were he not lying unconscious on a bed in the same room.” She turned away, her heels clacking loudly on the tile floor. “Follow me.”

Kakashi followed her, Iruka falling into place on his blind-side again.

Tsunade held open the door for both of them, her eyes hooded and unfathomable. Her lips were set in a thin line.

They entered an observation room. One entire wall was taken up with a massive window, the glass humming with chakra reinforcements. Inscribed seals ran around the frame, black ink awash with green light to indicate they were active. Two med-nin stood off to one side of the room, heads bent over a clipboard while they conversed in low tones.

In the white-walled inner room, there were two beds set up. The leftmost one held a comatose Shiranui Genma, half his head swathed in bandages, and the rest of his honey-amber hair clipped short to make room for the monitors adhered to his skull. A seal-inscribed tag rested on his bandaged chest, keeping him in the healing sleep. A med-nin was changing his IV lines, his movements swift and efficient. 

The other side of the room was not so peaceful. A gauze-swathed Namiashi Raidou was propped up on splinted arms, glaring furiously at a second medic that held a syringe. Raidou’s eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, dark smudges beneath them. A new set of three slashes crossed his burn scars at a right angle, angry red. It looked like claws, or possibly the climbing claws called _tekagi_ had made the wounds. His lips were pulled back from his teeth in a feral snarl, aimed squarely at the medic.

The observation room was obviously wired for audio as the med-nin could clearly be heard saying, “Namiashi-san, please, relax. I have a painkiller for you.” He tapped the glass syringe in his hand meaningfully.

Despite his ninjutsu training, the medic wasn’t fast enough to entirely dodge the water pitcher Raidou chucked at him. For a man with both arms in splints, Raidou’s throw was rather impressive.

“Fuck you,” Raidou hissed between clenched teeth. “You are not sedating me, asshole.”

Kakashi regarded Raidou for a long moment while the man fended off another attempt to sedate him, this time with a bedpan that made a resounding _klong_ when it rebounded off the med-nin’s hand and shattered the glass syringe he held.

The other med-nin moved away from Genma’s bedside to aid Raidou’s victim in picking bits of glass out of his hand.

Raidou’s eyes skated past him and widened. He stiffened and hauled himself further upright, trying to free his legs from the blankets. “ _Get the fuck away from him!_ ” His voice had that raw, primal fury in it. “Don’t fucking _touch_ him!”

If he had been shouting at the second med-nin, Kakashi might have been under the impression that Raidou was thinking that the medic who had tried to drug him was a spy or assassin from another village. But Raidou’s terrified grimace was fixed on thin air near Genma’s bed.

He struggled free of his bedding and lunged for Genma’s bed as fast as his bandaged legs would carry him. He paid no mind to the two medics, nor the two others that burst in from a door opposite the observation room. 

The two burly med-nin restrained him with the efficiency of long practice and one of them jabbed a needle in Raidou’s neck. Only then did Raidou seem to take notice of them and struggle to escape them. But whatever he had been injected with did its work quickly and his legs buckled. He continued to fight but it was clear that his limbs had all the strength of over-cooked noodles.

The medics hauled him back to his bed.

Raidou’s feverish stare never wavered from Genma’s bed, and he shrieked with thwarted fury.

“Well?” Kakashi glanced over to see Tsunade regarding him with an assessing gaze.

She folded her arms across her breasts and tipped her head to one side. “I’d like to know what’s going through that head of yours before I give you details,” she went on, her lips still thinned in a frown. “Surprise me, genius.”

Kakashi chewed on his lower lip behind the mask, gathering his thoughts. “Well, the obvious answers aren’t it.” he postulated.

Tsunade’s eyebrow quirked upward and she waited.

Kakashi thought back to the last few minutes, letting the images shift and percolate. “Nothing in his system?”

“Other than the muscle relaxer they just dosed him with, only painkillers he’s never had a reaction to before.” Tsunade answered, shifting her stance just a little, like she was waiting for him to work it out before she pounced. “I’ve run lab tests and his blood comes up entirely free of known compounds.” She cut him off with a wave of manicured fingers. “And before you ask, no unknown ones either. His blood chemistry is clean.”

“Have you had a Hyuuga in here to look at him yet?” Iruka asked suddenly.

Iruka’s unexpected question help click some of the pieces into place. “His chakra systems have been affected. A jutsu?”

Tsunade relaxed minutely. “Yes, the traces are unmistakable, but thus far we’ve been unable to determine precisely what it is and how it’s affecting them.”

“Them?” Kakashi spared a second glance for Genma. Even in his forced coma, there was a thin sheen of sweat on his skin and his eyes darted restlessly behind closed lids. Another glance at Raidou confirmed the symptoms.

Tsunade sighed and dropped her arms to her sides. “Yes. Surprisingly, considering his current condition, Shiranui was conscious when they were brought in. He exhibited the same paranoia and aggressive behaviour. I had to sedate him heavily to be able to treat his injuries.” She indicated Raidou with a sharp jerk of her chin. “Namiashi was more cooperative when he woke. He claimed that they were being targeted by ghosts.” The last word dropped into the silence like a rock.

“Ghosts?” Kakashi couldn’t help the disbelief in his own voice. He had his own ghosts, to be sure, but they were more shadows of regret than specters. He’d seen nothing in his life to indicate that people actually did hang around the world of the living once their own mortal existence was snuffed out.

Tsunade nodded somberly. “That’s what he said. At first he seemed entirely lucid and stable, but he progressively got worse, particularly when we had to induce a healing coma on Shiranui.” She lifted a hand to indicate the bandages around Genma’s skull. “He suffered severe head trauma and a resultant increase in intracranial pressure. We’ve relieved the pressure and healed the damaged blood vessels, but he needs rest to increase his chances of healing normally.”

Kakashi nodded at her and returned his attention to the injured men.

Beyond the glass, Raidou lay slack against his pillows, eyelids drooping. “Please, stay the hell away from him...” His voice was full of defeated resignation and fear.

Struck by the weary despair in Raidou’s face, Kakashi spared Tsunade a sideways glance. “Let me talk to him.”

Her face conveyed a mixture of concern and disbelief. “Kakashi...”

“Now,” Kakashi interjected before Tsunade could voice any of the protests he could see brewing in her expression. “While he’s unable to attack me and emotionally vulnerable. Maybe I can learn enough for you to be able to help him.”

Her concern was still writ large in her expressive eyes, but he could tell that he’d convinced her. The need to help her patients overruled all else.

“Fine,” Tsunade sighed, relaxing from her instinctively tense posture. She waved a hand toward the door into the inner room.


	2. Unseen Dangers

Kakashi approached the bed with the same wary caution he’d use in approaching an injured and potentially dangerous nin. Despite the drug, Raidou was still trying to keep his red-rimmed eyes on Genma’s bed. His fingers twitched impotently against the sheets and he hissed curses and further entreaties against the demons of his mind.

For a moment Kakashi debated how to approach this, but Raidou saved him the trouble. For the first time, Raidou seemed able to find focus, his bleary eyes seeing the here and now of the hospital room. He focused on Kakashi and his mouth dropped open.

“Kakashi!”

Raidou’s brown eyes fastened on Kakashi with a feverish intensity. “Kakashi!” he repeated, voice scaling upwards in rising hope. “You can fucking see it too, right? Tell them I’m not fucking crazy!”

“Report, Jounin!” Kakashi injected his voice with every bit of command he had learned in his years as an ANBU captain.

“I— ” It worked. Raidou’s back stiffened and his head came up. “Mission objective accomplished. We had all the information about the planned coup and were cleaning up the evidence when a nin attacked. Not in the bingo book, but S-class at the very least. We were managing to hold him off when we found out he had allies. Ten visible though there could have been more who didn’t put in an appearance. At least four were recognizable from the bingo books, Adashi Murikei from Mist, Mushimaru Idate from Stone, and the Tenji twins from Lightning.” He shook his head. “We were so outmatched that it wasn’t even funny. We cut and ran. I fell back to give Gemna cover, while he tried to get the plans back. He’d just dispatched Mordikai to carry the information back when Mushimaru hit; came up out of the ground in a barrage of stone needles before I even knew he was there. He hit Genma first, slammed him into a cliffside while the Tenji twins kept me at bay with their damned bait-and-switch jutsu. I disabled Tenji Amaia and threw out some shadow clones and smoke bombs while I tried to reach Genma.”

Raidou’s voice dropped into a shaken whisper. “I don’t know _what_ exactly happened next, but that first S-class hit me out of nowhere. I’ve never seen anybody move that fast, not even you, Kakashi. He had this black _thing_ with him, looked kinda like a dog, but wrong somehow... made you sick just to look at it. It clawed the hell out of my face and both legs before I managed to stick a kunai in it. That pissed its master off and he smashed me into a tree with a Katon; broke both my arms. He started throwing out handsigns for a jutsu faster than hell... I don’t remember whether he completed it or not because I was starting to black out.” He self-consciously rubbed his fingers against the sheets covering him. “I thought I heard Mordikai cawing and then there were ANBU everywhere.”

Raidou looked away. “I thought I heard Genma yelling and then I woke up here. And _they_ were here, all around. They’re watching always... and they want us.” He glanced back up; his voice was wavering back to the edge of madness and his gaze started to drift past Kakashi. “Stay away from him,” he pled again.

Raidou fixed his attention on Kakashi again. “Nobody else sees them and I can’t stop! They’re always there in the corners of my eyes, watching and whispering. They get closer every time I close my eyes. I can’t sleep because If I do they’ll have him.” His skin was pale from blood-loss and damp with sweat, but his eyes were intensely focused. “Tell me you fucking see them!” He pointed with a shaking hand at the corner of the hospital room closest to where Gemna lay in enforced slumber.

Kakashi followed the wavering finger. All he saw were dust motes suspended in a beam of late afternoon sunlight from the one small window on the room’s outer wall. He started to turn his attention back to Raidou

Raidou snarled at him, fingers clawing into fists on the sheets. “Use your other eye! They’re there, dammit!”

Reluctantly, but willing to humor the frantic ninja, Kakashi lifted his headband. 

The world spun into a different focus, a complex web of chakra overlaying the real world like shimmering multi-hued streams of pure light. Genma was a spark of copper fire, wreathed round by the green of healing chakra woven through his damaged body; the seal on his chest glowed a true emerald green, keeping him deeply asleep so he could heal. Remnants of the jutsu that had hit him and Raidou glittered a malignant purple edged with black. A thin trail of it filtered off his body, leading to the corner where Raidou had first pointed him.

Kakashi frowned. There was something there in the corner, a vague heat-shimmer defined loosely with that same purple-black fire. He could discern nothing tangible about it, but he could feel it. Hatred and hunger and all-consuming— 

With a stifled gasp, Kakashi yanked his hitai-ate back into place, cutting the connection with that devouring thing lurking in the corner. His legs trembled beneath him and his dizziness came back in full force. He stumbled back a step before even realizing he had done so. He felt strangely adrift.

Suddenly, strong hands offered support, catching under his elbows and steadying him.

Iruka had come into the room at some point, it seemed. Caught up in the mental struggle to pull his attention away from the hungry _thing_ in the corner, Kakashi hadn’t noticed. That inattention concerned him but not as much as the fact that Iruka had him by the arm and was backing them slowly, step by step, away from the corner. All of Iruka’s attention was bent upon the corner, now looking utterly inoffensive in the golden light of late afternoon.

Raidou’s half-mad eyes glittered. “Iruka-sensei! You can see them too!?”

Never taking his attention from the corner, Iruka gave a minute shake of his head. “No. I can’t see anything, but I can sense it.” They had reached the side of Raidou’s bed and some of the tension In Iruka’s frame evaporated. Still keeping a wary eye on the corner, he glanced quickly down at Raidou. “Is it more than one? There’s too much tangled up for me to get a better feel for it.”

The door to the observation room slammed open and Tsunade stormed into the room, radiating concern. “What the hell just happened?” She strode over to Kakashi and gripped his chin, tilting his head so she could look into his eye.

Kakashi mused idly that he must have looked worse than he thought. And somehow, he knew that was a bad sign.

Tsunade sighed. “You’re shocky, brat.” Her hands glowed a soft green.

The dizziness and the odd sense of disconnection faded. Kakashi straightened up, taking a deep breath. “I won’t say it’s a ghost, but there is definitely something here and it is about the farthest thing from friendly,” he reported.

Iruka nodded confirmation. “When I entered the room I could sense it, Tsunade-sama. It’s hard to describe exactly what it is, because all I can really feel are the tangled threads of chakra. There’s a seal too, but it’s so mixed up in everything else I can’t make the purpose of the seal out. If I had to guess, I’d say it’s keeping whatever that is here and linked to these two. The whole thing is so full of ill-intent it’s making me nauseous.”

Tsunade turned to regard the empty-seeming corner warily.

Raidou, seeming much calmer now, shivered. “Hungry ghosts,” he breathed, his voice barely above a whisper. “They want us both, but they can only come close when we’re sleeping.”

Tsunade sat on the side of his bed, resting a hand on his forehead, more healing chakra swirling in eddies around her fingers. “Tell me everything that you can see.”

Raidou sighed and leaned into her touch. “No real details,” he sighed tiredly. “Just human or almost human-shaped figures, looming close to his bed. I can feel them staring, waiting. For what, I don’t know. When I sleep, I can feel them glaring at me.”

Kakashi felt Iruka’s hands, still on his elbows to offer support, tighten. He glanced over to see the sensei staring at the corner, his mouth set in a thin, grim line. “Iruka?” he questioned softly.

Iruka gave him a half-smile and squeezed his elbow gently.

Blinking, Kakashi realized he forgotten to add the honorifics that he always did in public.

Iruka made no mention of it, only concentrating on the area around Genma’s bed. There was a thin furrow between his brows, a sign Kakashi had learned long ago. It meant Iruka was concentrating, bending all his will on something until he’d winkled out every conceivable detail. Iruka could be tenacious to the point of madness.

Tsunade glanced up, her hand still on Raidou’s forehead. It seemed she too knew that look, because she asked softly, “Iruka-sensei?”

“Yes, Hokage-sama?” Iruka answered, but his voice was abstracted, like most of his mind was still chewing over the puzzle. 

“What are you thinking?” Her tone carried a note of command.

“There’s a visual component to the seal,” Iruka responded, attention still on the corner of the room. “One that’s pretty strongly woven into the link between the jutsu and Genma and Raidou. I would guess that’s why they can see the things, however vaguely, when we can only sense them. At a best guess, if there were no one with Kakashi-san’s type of visual-based talent or my sensitivity, anyone else might think they’d gone mad. I think, with a little help from Kakashi-san, I can undo the visual component, at least enough to get an idea of what we’re dealing with here.” At last Iruka brought his attention fully back to Tsunade, a frown-line creasing his brow and wrinkling the center of his scar.

One of Tsunade’s delicately arched brows lifted. “Can you now?”

Iruka sighed and sheepishly scratched at the base of his ponytail. “I won’t promise what I can’t guarantee to deliver, but I think so. Like I said, I’ll need Kakashi-san’s help.”

Tsunade’s level gaze drifted over to Kakashi, dipping briefly to where Iruka’s hand still rested lightly on Kakashi’s elbow before zeroing in on his face. “Well, brat? Do you feel up to assisting Iruka-sensei?”

Kakashi took a moment to assess his physical health, including his chakra. He’d burned through some of it, but not enough to cause him undue distress. His head felt better, and he knew Tsunade had finished what Sakura had started, healing the last vestiges of his concussion when she’d helped him after his shocking encounter with... whatever that was. He could feel the slow itch in his broken hand and knew that it was still of no use unless he wanted to screw up the healing. All in all, he’d call his condition fair. “No handsigns until my hand heals, but otherwise I’m good to help. What do you need, Iruka-sensei?”

Iruka sighed. “I need to be able to see the chakra flows like your Sharingan can. If I can see what I’m doing, I should be able to disable the visual part of the seal, at least long enough for me to get an idea of what we’re dealing with here.”

Kakashi pursed his lips thoughtfully. “I think I can do that, but you’ll have to drop all your barriers when I open the Sharingan so I can pull you into a genjutsu.” He waved his bandaged hand weakly. “I can’t exactly force it on you like this.”

Tsunade’s lips pursed and her expression filled with concern. “Are you entirely sure about this?” she asked, lowering her hand.

Iruka’s lips twisted in a self-deprecating smile. “Not at all,” he said with frank amusement in his tone. “I’m scared shitless, but what else is new? I can’t just sit here and do nothing, when there is something I can do to at least try and help.”

Tsunade gnawed on her lower lip in uncertainty. “I know that, believe me. I just wish...” She shook her head. “Never mind. But I am monitoring you both if we do this. I won’t have you coming to harm when I can prevent it.”

Iruka glanced at Kakashi, his brown eyes warm despite the nervousness in their depths. “As I’d rather not be hurt, I won’t object.”

Kakashi sighed. “Come stand in front of me, Iruka-sensei. Like I said, you’ll have to let down your mental barriers to make it easier for me to pull you in.” He tilted his head at Tsunade. Pushing down the uneasiness he felt churning in his gut, he quirked his visible eyebrow at her. “Stand back, please,” he asked her softly. “Too close while I’m creating this, and things might get a little screwed up.”

Tsunade let out her breath in a little huff, but nodded and moved back several paces.

Raidou, slumped against his pillows, watched them both with haunted eyes, but offered a small smile of encouragement.

Releasing his breath in a silent sigh, Kakashi faced Iruka and let his eye ask the questions he couldn’t.

Iruka’s smile was calm and he nodded, just once.

Closing his normal eye, Kakashi took a deep breath and hooked the thumb of his bandaged hand under the lower edge of his hitai-ate. Releasing the breath, he opened his Sharingan and looked into Iruka’s trusting gaze.

It was damnably hard to create a genjutsu, even with a willing subject, without relying on the hand-signs and the chakra-shaping they provided. But it could be done, if slowly and carefully.

Iruka had calmed his breathing and stood patiently, not in trance, but entirely open and receptive.

It struck Kakashi anew how very much Iruka trusted him, allowing Kakashi into his mind and senses. He quelled the icy little shiver that crawled up his spine and reached out to connect his chakra with Iruka’s.

Iruka started a little, probably at the electric feel of Kakashi’s chakra, but after a moment, his breathing evened out and matched Kakashi’s. Their heartbeats thudded in unison inside Kakashi’s ears. To his surprise, it felt like Iruka was welcoming him in, his chakra twining around Kakashi’s own, bright and warming.

For a moment, the room swayed around him and it seemed as though he was seeing double. Briefly, he feared his healing concussion was interfering, but then he got an odd sense of seeing his own concerned face, Sharingan whirling a sullen red in the shadow of his hitai-ate, and realized he’d truly linked to Iruka.

It was breathtaking, and if he hadn’t been well aware of the constraints of both time and energy, he would have savored it; the feel of Iruka in and around him, permeating every fiber of his being and so in sync that they breathed as one.

Regretfully, he concentrated on building the illusion that would allow Iruka to see as he did. Painstakingly, he wove chakra until everything was as it should be, fed the genjutsu to Iruka and reluctantly broke the link between them.

He’d never understood before, the phantom limb pain that those shinobi who’d lost appendages on missions had spoken of, but oh— now he did. It felt as if something integral to himself were missing, never to be returned, and it scared him... a lot.

Kakashi lowered his hitai-ate and fastened his normal eye on Iruka.

Iruka stood still, his brown eyes open and his breathing just slightly too fast.


	3. Beholding

Iruka felt Kakashi slip away from his senses and had to keep himself from grasping after that fleeting, tenuous moment of connection. It had been glorious, knowing... Kakashi held himself so aloof, and even after they had become first friends and later something resembling lovers, he’d never showed so much of his real feelings. 

But now was not the time for that, though he had a feeling he and Kakashi would be having a very long discussion later. Iruka let his breath out in a long sigh and blinked, letting the genjutsu take over his perceptions.

He could feel the malignant knot of chakra and now that he could see it, it was obvious how it was drawing on the life-energy of the two men. The seal he’d only been able to vaguely sense burned a festering red in the heart of it, functioning on several levels, feeding the energy of the two shinobi into the pulsating mass of loathsome hatred and hunger, and keeping that same thing anchored here in the material plane. Iruka pushed down the fear and nausea it evoked in him and found the part of the seal he’d been looking for. It was oddly simple in comparison to the complexity of the rest of the accursed thing, and surprisingly, did not seem to be trapped in any way.

He took a bare moment to memorize every aspect of the seal, burning it into his memory so that he could recall it later and perhaps help destroy it.

Iruka held his breath and reached out with his chakra to twist the seal, bending the visual component until the whole room shimmered around him, like a thousand watery ripples colliding and shattering the image.

When it clarified...

Iruka breathed a silent prayer to whatever gods might be listening, for the room was no longer empty of anyone save himself, Kakashi, Tsunade and the men on the beds. He counted fourteen half-seen figures, most of them clustered near the head of the bed where Genma tossed and muttered in an enforced sleep. Despite everything, they were still barely visible, more shadows than shapes, and something told Iruka they were not meant to be here, trapped in the seal. 

It almost looked like they were guarding Genma from one of the others, a figure curled in on itself at the foot of the bed, all but glowing with malignant chakra.

Iruka reached out instinctively for support and felt Kakashi’s hand, warm and alive, take his own, but couldn’t tear his eyes away from the figure hunched at the foot of Genma’s bed. 

She had been beautiful once, long dark-violet hair and a face that would have been a classic beauty were it not filled with hatred, rage and grief. Unlike most of the other half-visible shapes, she was clearly defined and bore the marks of the wound that had killed her. She had been brutally cut open from right shoulder to left thigh, bared ribs glistening with gore and viscera grotesquely bulging out the long slash. She held one clawed hand cupped near her savaged abdomen, like she was trying to hold her internal organs in. Blood poured over her hand and dripped, only to vanish before it reached the white-tiled floor.

She stretched her unbloodied hand toward Genma’s sleeping face, a look of naked hunger distorting her features further.

Involuntarily, Iruka caught his breath.

Mad blue eyes snapped up to lock on him, all the rage and hunger that had been directed at Genma finding sudden focus on Iruka.

_“Mine!!”_ she screamed, lunging for Iruka, her reaching hand stretching out into bony talons that grasped after his throat..

Iruka barely had time to notice she held something bloody in her clawed hand, ducking away from her and feeling Kakashi’s hand slide from his. He rolled to avoid a second slash, fetching up against the foot of Genma’s bed.

She paused, her gaze flicking between him and Genma. For a moment, confusion wiped the fury from her face. Then she glanced down at her bloody handful and rage and greif filled her features again. She lifted her head and stared at him with hate-filled eyes. The malice was so strong it hung in the air like the foetor of rotting flesh.

Bile burned in Iruka’s throat and he sidled away from the bed.

She lurched a step towards him, hellish fury burning in those utterly mad eyes.

Iruka barely had the presence of mind to snap his hands together in the motions of a dispelling jutsu. “Kai!” 

He jerked back and fell out of the genjutsu with a thud, careening backwards into Kakashi. Even though he could no longer see her clearly, he edged away from where she had been. Her malice still hung in the sterile air, thick and choking. Iruka could almost taste it.

“Iruka?” Kakashi’s voice held the beginnings of real concern. 

Iruka shook his head. He had to get out of here.

Pulling away from Kakashi’s support, Iruka lurched for the hall and the hopefully clearer air. He made it a few paces past the doorway and propped himself against the wall with his hands, shaking and retching. So much hatred and grief...

His strength gave out and he slumped to his knees beside the puddle of bile, dry heaves wracking him.

He was pulled against a warm muscular chest and Iruka looked up into Kakashi’s slightly-panicky gray eye. Kakashi’s breath was coming too fast and Iruka could feel fine tremors shivering though the arms around him.

Iruka managed a wan smile, struggling to suppress another bout of dry heaves.

Tsunade knelt next to them, resting a long-fingered hand against Iruka’s jerking abdominal muscles. The spasm passed and Iruka let himself relax in Kakashi’s just-this-side-of-painful hold.

A med-nin brought Tsunade a cup of water and she pressed it into Iruka's hands. He rinsed his mouth out with the first mouthful and then sipped the rest, hoping it would ease the burning in his throat. It didn’t work. All it took was the thought of those mad blue eyes and the water turned to ashes in his mouth.

“What did you see?” Tsunade asked, not without some concern.

Iruka shook his head. “Not here. And not in there, either.”

Tsunade nodded jerkily and rose to her feet. “Follow me.”

Kakashi pulled Iruka to his feet and kept a steadying arm around his shoulders.

Iruka was glad of the support, and let his weight rest against Kakashi.

Tsunade led them to a small office and hitched herself up on the desk while Iruka slumped bonelessly into one of the chairs. Kakashi disdained the other, choosing instead to stand on alert behind Iruka’s chair, between the door and them.

Tsunade’s sharp eyes obviously missed nothing, Kakashi could tell, but she made no comment, instead focusing all of her formidable attention on Iruka. “What happened in there?”

Iruka swallowed down bile and in the dry monotone he used for reciting mission facts, began to recount everything. “Kakashi-san initiated the gen-”

Tsunade’s open palm slapped the wood of the desk with a loud crack, causing both Iruka and Kakashi to jump. “Spare me the introduction and get to the meat of it. _What did you see?_ ”

Iruka sighed. “Hungry ghosts.”


	4. Summon

Kakashi tensed. He could not disbelieve the conviction in Iruka’s voice in spite of his own thoughts on the matter.

Iruka continued, his voice almost toneless. “I was right, there’s some sort of fiendishly complicated jutsu tied into those two in there. The seal is draining their life-energy to feed into the jutsu itself and into... into the ghost. I think there’s only supposed to be the one vengeful ghost, but there are others, accidentally caught in the binding. They weren’t as clear as... her.” He swallowed heavily before continuing. “They almost seemed sympathetic, trying to guard Genma from h-her. She died, horribly, cut open from throat to thigh.” Iruka shuddered. “What’s left of her... is mad. I don’t know whether she lost something, or died trying to protect it, but now she’s entirely fixated on it and keeping it. I don’t know what it was, but she held something small in one hand and shouted ‘mine!’ at me before attacking.”

Tsunade blinked and leaned back on her hands, lips pursed. “Oddly enough, I don’t doubt it. For years, my own teammate was obsessed with cheating death or bending it to his will. When he left the village all those years ago, there were reports of him studying with every two-bit ghost-talker and dark arts practitioner he could find. One of the reports mentioned something like the creature Namiashi described, bound to the will of one of those men Orochimaru studied with. It was rumored, though only rumored, that he could call up the vengeful dead to do his bidding.”

She tapped a finger against her bottom lip. “I’ll have to dig into those old reports, see if there’s a thread of veracity to be found there. At the rate those two are hemorrhaging chakra into that seal, they’ve got two more days at best before they slip into shock from the chakra drain and die. I daren’t seal their chakra without knowing what that would do to the damned jutsu.” She glanced up at Iruka. “What did she look like, Iruka-sensei? If we can find a record of her, it might lead us in the right direction.”

Iruka shuddered and brought his hands together in the signs for a henge. Smoke billowed around him and Kakashi had to force himself not to look away from the ravaged creature sitting in Iruka’s place. 

Tsunade swallowed a sick moan and slid off the desk with a thump, her face pale as death. Her pupils narrowed to pinpricks and she had to clear her throat twice before she could force words out. “That will do,” she managed in a voice entirely unlike her normal authoritative tone.

Sighing, Iruka released the henge and slumped back in his chair, his face gone pale beneath his tan.

Tsunade regained her composure and looked at him sharply. “You’ve used up too much of your own chakra,” she glowered. “You should rest.”

The corner of Iruka’s lips quirked up in that stubborn smile Kakashi had come to know well. “I can rest while helping you, Tsunade-sama. Research doesn’t require chakra. And you said it yourself, we don’t have much time to spare.”

Despite the paleness of her face, one side of Tsunade’s mouth curled up in a wry smile and laugh-lines creased the corners of her eyes. “Twit. You’ve been hanging out with this brat too long.”

Iruka’s smile widened. “Maybe.”

Tsunade snorted. “Well, so be it. You just volunteered the two of you to be my research aides.” Then her gaze skipped to Kakashi and turned thoughtful. “Brat, your summons; are they like Katsuyu in being linked to the spirit plane even while on this one?”

Kakashi nodded slowly, beginning to get the gist of what she was pondering. “They are.”

She assessed his condition with a practiced eye. “You still have enough chakra to summon them?”

Kakashi bobbed his head once in agreement, but lifted his broken hand to remind her of his inability to perform seals.

Tsunade puffed out her cheeks in a sigh, “Dammit.”

Iruka lifted his head and met Kakashi’s gaze. There was a question in his eyes.

Kakashi sighed. “I suppose there’s no time like the present to test it out, sensei.”

“Test what out?” Tsunade asked sharply, her bright eyes alert.

Kakashi didn’t answer, only stretching out his undamaged hand toward Iruka.

Iruka met it with his own, fingers already bending into the first sign, explaining for him. “One report Kakashi read while he was searching for Orochimaru and Sasuke indicated that Kabuto was able to summon Manda to Orochimaru’s side by performing the handsigns while Orochimaru provided the chakra. Of course he had a curse seal to facilitate that, but Kakashi reasoned if two people performed the summoning, while the one with the contract provided the chakra, it should work the same. He explained it to me but hadn’t tested it out yet.”

“Will it harm either of you?”

“It shouldn’t,” Kakashi opined. “At worst, nothing will happen and I’ll have wasted a chunk of chakra. At best, we summon some of my pack.” He meshed his hand with Iruka’s in the first sign.

For a moment, it was almost like they were still connected like they had been before, their hands moving smoothly together. It was a pale imitation of the bond, but it still made Kakashi’s skin tingle. He tugged down his mask with his broken hand and used a sharp canine to pierce the pad of the thumb. He pressed the blood into the jutsu and felt the draining of chakra into the summoning.

With a hiss of expanding air, smoke billowed around them, dissipating to reveal all eight dogs arrayed around their feet.

Kakashi managed to keep his reaction down to only a surprised blink. He hadn’t expected it to work so well.

Pakkun raised his head. “Well, that was new,” he grumbled solemnly. “You two finally decide to make your mating public knowledge?”

Iruka flushed and Kakashi glared down at his uppity little summons. “That’s enough out of you. I summoned you for a reason.”

The rest of the dogs snapped to attention, but Pakkun only snorted disdainfully.

Tsunade was having none of it. She snapped sharply. “Follow me, the lot of you.”

Obediently, the ninken filed after her. 

Kakashi hid a laugh and followed.

Iruka shuddered, falling in place beside him. 

Kakashi found himself reaching out for Iruka’s hand. 

Iruka did not take it, but gave him a smile.

They had barely reached the observation room when, almost as one, the ninken bristled, hackles going up and lips peeling back from gleaming teeth. Buru bayed once, his deep, threatening hunt-call. Bisuke whimpered, tail tucked close to his belly. Guruko snarled, ears flat and shoulders bunched. Beside him, Shiba dropped his forequarters in an attack posture. Akino and Uuhei were alert, sharp eyes darting and taking in everything.

“What the—?” Pakkun cut himself off with a volley of barks, the fur along his spine bristling.

“ _That—_ ” Kakashi looked down at Pakkun and raised his eyebrow sardonically. “—-Is why we summoned you.”

Tsunade turned and gazed down at them. “You are all still fully aware of the spirit plane, which we, unfortunately, cannot see without special preparations. There is a vengeful spirit stalking the two men in this room. You are to guard them while we work out a way to send it away and help them.”

“Guard,” Buru grunted, shoving his massive head under Tsunade’s hand.

True to his word, Buru took up a post at the foot of Genma’s bed, body vibrating with his muted growl.

Pakkun canted his head to one side, ears pricked up. “You realize she’s not the only one here, right?”

Iruka, looking a little greenish, nodded. “We think they were caught in the seal keeping her here and fixated on these two.”

Pakkun looked squarely at Iruka. “Sonny, despite you and the bosses’ idiocy concerning your relationship, you are _not_ an idiot. Think for a minute, will you?”

Kakashi, unsure where Pakkun was going with this, glanced at Iruka’s face, watching thoughts flicker over his features.

“You summoned us over here, why?” Guruko piped up helpfully, leaping up onto Raidou’s bed. Raidou stirred at the motion, obviously still fighting off sleep. Guruko patted his hand with a paw and Raidou relaxed back into his half-asleep state.

“Spirit!” Iruka exclaimed suddenly. “You can see and interact with the spirit plane, even when you’re on this plane.”

“I think he’s got it,” Urushi yipped excitedly, bouncing up and down on his forepaws, tail wagging furiously.

Iruka dropped to a crouch, bring himself on more of a level with the pack. “She’s not sane anymore.”

Akino shook his shaggy head.

“No,” Pakkun added gravely. “She’s too far gone. Whatever was left of her humanity was burned away by whatever made her a hungry ghost.”

Iruka considered for a moment and then a slow smile crept across his lips. “But you can still talk to the others, right? Find out what they know.” He turned his gaze up to Kakashi, eyes shining. “See what they can tell us about the one who bound them, and who she was in life. If we know who she is—”

“We might find the key to banishing her and breaking the seal.” Tsunade finished for him, her face lighting up. “Kakashi—”

“Her name was Onari Miyake,” Uuhei interrupted, blue eyes fixed on a point near the head of Raidou’s bed. “She was from Mist, a traps specialist.”

“He—the one that trapped them all in the seal— he tortured her for her knowledge before he killed her. Part of what he got out of her was used in the making of the seal that keeps her trapped here,” Guruko, his attention fixed on another point in the air, continued. “He was trying to create a more powerful creature, not a hungry ghost, but something that creates more rage and misery wherever it goes, and feeds on those emotions to become more powerful.”

“But something went wrong,” Bisuke put in. “Whether it was because he had imperfect control of the seal, or hadn’t counted on her going mad before he bound her into the creature, they don’t know, all they remember is being caught in the seal.”

“So it’s incomplete?” Tsunade asked thoughtfully.

“Not incomplete,” Pakkun shrugged, ears flicking rapidly. “More like, not what he was intending. He meant to make a creature, not a hungry ghost, but she is feeding off of Raidou and Genma as intended, and she’s growing stronger, the more she leeches from them.” He grunted. “So the seal’s not incomplete, just not in the form he wanted it.”

“Does that mean there’s a flaw in it somewhere?” Tsunade questioned.

A furry wave of canine shrugs went around the room.

Iruka echoed them with a shake of his head. “From what I saw, no. I’d have to look harder to find a weakness. It’s poss—”

He was cut off by a rising commotion from outside the room. “—Damned head-in-his-ass, retarded jounin. Now he’s even corrupting Iruka-sensei— And you will get out of my way if you value your ability to create future progeny... Gonna kick his scrawny, lazy ass, heal it and then kick it again!”

The door from the hallway crashed open, and Sakura stood there, fists planted on hips and brimming with righteous indignation. “So, I happened down to the dispensary, only to find out you haven’t picked up your medica- _urk—_ ” she cut herself off abruptly, mouth dropping open. Her face paled and she back-pedaled several paces. “What the—?”

“Sakura!” Tsunade’s voice cracked like a whip across the intervening space.

Sakura instinctively straightened up, frightened leaf-green eyes seeking her mentor. “Tsunade-sama?” she faltered, her previous head of steam gone as if it had never been. “What’s going on here? W-why does this room feel wrong?”

She was shivering hard enough for Kakashi to see it across the room. With a nod at the pack he strode across the room, took her arm in his unbandaged hand and steered her back out into the hallway, echoingly empty after her earlier performance.

Leaving the dogs to stand guard, Iruka and Tsunade followed them out. Kakashi ignored them for the moment, focusing on Sakura. “Breathe,” he chided.

She gulped down a breath and then another, slower one. When her breathing evened out, she looked up and met his eyes. “K-Kakashi-sensei?”

Her uncertain voice sent a pang through him. Gritting his teeth behind his mask, Kakashi held her gaze. “Sakura-chan, tell me what you sensed in there.” Despite his quiet tone, there could be no mistaking the command for anything but what it was.

Dropping her gaze, Sakura shivered again. “Cold and anger. Malice and grief. I don’t know what it was, Kakashi-sensei, but it felt like walking into a wall of pure hate.”

Iruka came up beside them and draped a comforting arm around her shoulders.

Sakura leaned gratefully into the embrace. “Like this wave of pure, cold hatred directed right at me.” She blinked up at them. “What did I do? Why would you hate me?”

Kakashi flinched, feeling like he’d been struck.

Iruka shot him a look that froze him into place before he turned Sakura’s face up to his. “No. None of us could hate you. That hate wasn’t directed at you. There is a vengeful ghost in that room. That’s what hates everything and everyone.”

Sakura’s tense posture relaxed just a little bit, but she shook her head firmly. “No. Some of that hate was directed squarely at me. I felt it.”

Iruka started and glanced up at Tsunade.

The Hokage’s mouth was pinched and there was a crease between her brows. “Stay here,” she commanded before striding back into the room.

A few moments later, she had returned, face drawn in a concerned frown.

Sakura, who had finally calmed and begun scolding Kakashi for not going straight to the dispensary and then home, sprang up from the bench Iruka had made her sit on. “Tsunade-sama?”

Tsunade’s gold eyes fastened on Sakura. “You weren’t wrong.”

Kakashi snapped to attention.

Her gaze briefly darted to him before returning to Sakura. “I spoke to the ninken. The ghost reacted more strongly to you than any of us. The question is, why?”

“What’s going on?” Sakura asked, her confidence restored.

Iruka gave her a quick rundown, concise and factual. He only hesitated when it came to his own encounter with the ghost, paling and swallowing heavily before relaying what he had seen and heard when it had attacked him.

At his description of the wounds still visible on the ghost, Kakashi could almost see the med-nin part of Sakura’s training come into play. She asked several pointed questions about the injuries, and whether it appeared to be blood loss that had killed her or the wound itself.

Iruka, with his limited medical training, was obviously quickly growing frustrated with his inability to answer her questions. Kakashi saw his intention a half second before Iruka snapped his hands together in a rapid series of hand-signs, and it was already too late to stop him.

The henge complete, Iruka turned towards Sakura. “This is what I saw.”

“Iruka-sensei!” Despite the paleness of her face and the averting of her gaze from the horror he had become, Tsunade’s voice still carried the heat of anger. “Idiot! Drop that henge right now while you still have enough chakra to keep you from falling on your face!”

Iruka swayed dizzily, but kept his gaze fixed on Sakura. “Better figure out what you can in the next thirty seconds, Sakura-chan,” he informed her, voice calm and remarkably like his classroom tone. “Because that’s how long I can hold this without vomiting on your feet and passing out.”

Sakura’s bright eyes darted over Iruka’s henge, but one corner of her mouth curled up. “Will there be a test on it, Sensei?”

Her irreverent comment startled Iruka into a laugh and he lost control of the illusion, staggering a step backwards.

Kakashi was waiting to steady him.

Tsunade stalked over to them, her gaze icy with anger and one hand rummaging into the pockets of her robe. “I trust you to be smarter than another idiot who burns himself out so much he can’t move on a regular basis, and what do you do but try to kill yourself?!” She pulled her hand out of a pocket with a familiar red pill in her fingers. “Take this chakra booster, you twit, before you fall over. And don’t go thinking you can get away with doing something that moronic again!”

Iruka blushed, ducked his head with a mumbled apology, and swallowed the chakra booster dry.

Kakashi let Iruka lean on him until the chakra booster took effect, watching Sakura muttering and pacing with bemusement.

Abruptly she stopped and faced Iruka again. “Iruka-sensei,” she exclaimed. “Was she always standing like this?” She smoothly adopted the pose Iruka had unconsciously mimicked in his henge, shoulders hunched forward, spine curved and one hand cupped low over her abdomen.

Iruka nodded slowly. “When she wasn’t trying to gut me, yes. The hand was a little more clawed though and she was holding something small and bloody in it. I couldn’t see what it was.”

Sakura adjusted her hand accordingly until Iruka nodded. “That looks right.”

“Hmm,” Sakura hummed thoughtfully. She turned her gaze up to Kakashi. “Kakashi-sensei, can you check with the ninken to see if that’s always the way she stands. I’d do it myself, but I don’t want to set her off again.”

Mystified, Kakashi nodded. He glanced at Iruka, who gave him a sideways smile and stepped away from his support. Satisfied that the chakra booster had taken effect, Kakashi ducked into the room, bracing himself.

The eight dogs had spread themselves out equally between the two beds, all focused on a point somewhere between. Only a couple of them spared him a glance, taking their assigned duty seriously.

“Boss,” Pakkun greeted from where he was sprawled on the foot of Genma’s bed. “What’s up?”

Feeling suddenly awkward, Kakashi relayed Sakura’s question. He knew the ghost had no interest in him, but it still felt odd.

To his surprise, all the dogs nodded. “When she’s not moving, she does,” Guruko put in.

“She always stands just like that,” Urushi added.

“In fact, that’s exactly how she’s standing now.” Uuhei flicked a triangular ear in his direction, eyes still pinned on that space between the beds.

With a quiet word of thanks and a brief caress on the heads of the three nearest him, Kakashi took himself out.

Sakura waited for him in a doorway across the hall. She held the door open onto a small waiting area. Iruka was sitting on one of the beige chairs, with Tsunade leaning over him, clearly making sure there were no further ill effects from his henge in the hall earlier.

Kakashi stepped inside and let the door close behind them before he spoke. “The ninken say she stands like that all the time, unless she’s moving.”

“Ah- _ha!_ ” Sakura exclaimed nearly in his ear. “I knew it!” she crowed. “It explains why she reacts more strongly to me and is no doubt the reason she’s become such a vengeful spirit.”

She turned to Tsunade. “Tsunade-sama, do you remember when Inuzuka Hana’s team made it into the hospital after their mission to Grass?”

Tsunade nodded her head slowly, a crease between her brows. “Yes. They were all injured, including the ninken. Inuzuka Hana had a concussion and massive trauma to her back. Tsuko Ren had his left arm and right leg broken and Ayeko Nozumi had several severe slashes across her thighs and shoulders.”

Sakura bounced on her toes. “And Ayeko-san, do you remember how she was standing when we came in to examine her? She was standing just like that, with one hand cupped near her stomach, _even though she’d taken no injury to the abdomen!_ ”

Tsunade nodded slowly, comprehension dawning. “She was four months pregnant...”

“And instinctively trying to protect her baby, even when none of her injuries were near it!” Sakura finished for her.

Iruka turned green. “Oh, gods,” he breathed, brown eyes going wide with rekindled horror. “No wonder she went crazy...”

Kakashi had to agree. Every ninja born knew that one day they would die, most likely brutally, by an enemy’s hand. They were all prepared for it. But for a mother, dying by inches as she was tortured, the sure knowledge of her unborn child’s demise before it had even drawn its first breath... had driven her entirely mad.


	5. Heart

Kakashi looked up into Tsunade’s eyes, the gold dulled behind horror. She looked away, one hand going instinctively to splay over her flat stomach. “She reacted so strongly to Sakura instead of me because Sakura is young enough to bear children, unlike myself,” she stated softly. “She’s driven by vengeance for her lost child and she will continue to lash out at anything in her madness.”

Sakura made a soft sound, one hand cupped over her mouth. “I...” she choked, voice thick with regret. “I just wanted to have the right answer, but to know what really happened to her...” Her voice trailed off into a muffled sound that could have been a sob.

Though his face was still far too pale, Iuka rose to his feet and caught Sakura’s chin, forcing her to look at him through watery eyes. “Hush. You have nothing to regret.” If his voice sounded a little stern, it certainly captured Sakura’s attention.

She blinked at him, lips trembling, but no words emerged.

Iruka shook his head firmly at her, dropping a finger across her lips. “You did a good thing, Sakura-chan. You figured it out and gave us a chance to...” His lips quirked up, but Kakashi could tell the smile wasn’t genuine. “Give her peace.”

Apparently, Sakura wasn’t able to tell, because her shoulders relaxed and she sighed. “Yes, Iruka-sensei.”

Iruka patted her shoulder and urged her toward Tsunade. When her attention was off him, Iruka’s shoulders slumped and he quietly moved away to a corner. He leaned against the wall, letting out his breath in a long, unsteady sigh.

Kakashi cast a sidelong glance at Tsunade and Sakura before slipping to Iruka’s side. He simply stood close enough for Iruka to feel his body heat, but that seemed to be enough.

Iruka looked up and gave him a grateful smile. His eyes were weary and sad and he lifted a hand to brush back a lock of hair that had escaped his ponytail.

“Iruka?” Kakashi made the name a question.

Iruka’s lips tightened and he sighed again. “I think I know what to do. I doubt Tsunade would approve of my doing it. She might kill me for going against her orders.” He shrugged, a loose roll of his shoulders, like he was gearing up for a fight. “Then again, not sure if I’ll want to live with myself after this.”

Kakashi felt his stomach lurch and shot out a hand to grip Iruka’s arm in a fierce hold. “Whatever it is, _don’t_!” he hissed.

Iruka slowly looked down at the fingers on his arm, one eyebrow climbing in that infuriating look Kakashi had long since come to associate with his more mulish moments. “You’re not my keeper, Kakashi-san.” His voice was cool and cutting.

That stung. Kakashi withdrew his hand like he’d been burned, staring at Iruka in disbelief.

Iruka held the look for a moment longer before sagging. He spoke in a low, urgent voice. “I can do it. It’ll take everything I have left, but I know how to free her. And with her gone, the seal will lose cohesion, because she’s at the heart of it. Genma and Raidou will recover and she’ll be...” Iruka hesitated, chewing on his bottom lip. “I don’t know that part. I don’t know what lies on the other side of death.”

“Peace,” Kakashi said suddenly, surprising himself. He remembered his own, brief time on the other side of that final darkness, though the memories were fuzzy. Sakumo’s face in the colorless firelight, losing that haggard look that had marked his final days in Kakashi’s life. The forgiveness Kakashi had given him, because he’d long ago lost any right to judge his father’s actions. And over it all, that pervading sense of peace, knowing that the fight was past.

The look Iruka favored him with was doubtful, but he nodded. “Then peace,” he agreed quietly.

In spite of his own misgivings, Kakashi leaned closer. “What would you do?”

Iruka shivered. “Not here. I don’t want Tsunade-sama to stop me.”

That did nothing but double the amount of doubt building in Kakashi’s gut, but he straightened up and said, loud enough for Tsunade and Sakura to hear, “I think there’s a restroom down at the end of the hall, Iruka-sensei.”

Tsunade looked up and indicated the door, twitching her head to the left. “Meet us back here here when you’re done, “ she murmured quietly. She favored Iruka with a penetrating look just before the door closed behind them. 

Kakashi was torn between hoping she would just think it was a lingering aftereffect from his encounter with the ghost, and wishing she would realize something was up and stop Iruka’s unknown plan.

They did go to the restroom, Iruka locking the door behind them. 

Kakashi leaned his back against the door and watched Iruka with a narrowed gaze. “Well?”

Iruka didn’t answer, rummaging instead in the pockets and pouches of his flak vest, turning out a variety of common shinobi gear and accoutrements onto the polished counter next to the sink. He swept aside everything but a bundle of carefully-wrapped chakra papers, a calligraphy brush, and a small bottle of a rather odd-looking, sepia-toned ink.

Frowning, Iruka opened the package of papers and shuffled rapidly through them. Several already had invocations inked on them— among the usual exploding tags and chakra-triggers for traps were several like nothing Kakashi had ever seen before. Before he could take too close a look at them, Iruka stacked them to one side and carefully laid out a single sheet of blank, chakra paper.

“So what precisely are you planning on doing and will I have to stop you before you do something foolish or lethal... or both?” Kakashi asked sternly, canting a hip against the counter and folding his arms across his chest.

Shaking the bottle of ink in one hand, Iruka looked askance at him. “I wouldn’t try it. You might stop me, but it _will_ cost you.” He uncapped the bottle and warily sniffed the liquid within. “Almost past the point of usability...” he muttered.

Kakashi watched, mystified.

Iruka pulled a clean senbon out of his sleeve and nicked his finger. He let two drops of blood drip into the neck of the ink bottle before recapping it and shaking it again. He glanced up at Kakashi, explaining quietly. “The blood acts as a base and carries just enough life essence for this to work. It would have been better if I’d’ve had something of hers to work with, but that ship has long since sailed.”

“You still haven’t explained what it is that you’re doing.”

“Watch.” Iruka set the bottle back down, uncapping it and setting the stopper aside. He picked up the brush and with sure strokes, deftly painted the basic outline of a human figure on the blank paper. The ink shimmered red for an instant before being absorbed into the paper and turning black. Where the heart would be, he filled in the kanji of the dead woman’s name, forming each character as naturally as he had written them a hundred times before. On the last brushstroke he added a small curl leading down into the abdomen of the figure. Inside that curl, he added the kanji for ‘heart.’

Kakashi could only watch with amazement for the deft brushstrokes Iruka used to inscribe an array around the figure. More than half the seals and sigils were ones he was unfamiliar with. The ones he _did_ recognize seemed contradictory at best.

At last Iruka seemed satisfied and laid the brush down. He stared down at the thing he had created.

Kakashi leaned over his shoulder. “So now are you going to tell me what it’s for?” he breathed close to the shell of Iruka’s ear.

Iruka startled and red slashed across his still pale face. “Dammit, Kakashi.”

“Still waiting for that explanation, sensei,” Kakashi rumbled. Keeping Iruka off-balance was his best chance of getting a straight answer. And that straight answer would either convince him to help Iruka or stop him.

Iruka sighed heavily and leaned his hands on the counter, resting his weight on them. “So she died, in torment, knowing her unborn baby would die with her. That’s what drove her mad and made her such a powerful vengeful spirit.”

“We figured that out already. And?” Kakashi prodded.

Iruka shot him a glare, but it was half-hearted at best. “Like I said before, take her out of the equation and the whole jutsu comes apart. The other spirits will be free and most importantly, Genma and Raidou will recover. She’s focused on one thing, to the exclusion of all others. Her baby. Her rage at its loss and her hatred for the man who killed it are all linked back to that single thread.”

Iruka tapped the drawing with one finger. “This is the key. It’s as close as I can come to a true kotodama to invoke her child’s spirit. Without knowing the name she was going to give it, all I can do is use this...” he indicated the kanji in the center of the figure. “Onari Miyake’s heart. The truest name I could give to it.”

Kakashi couldn’t contain his disbelief. “Are you an onmyouji now, to summon the spirit of an unborn child?” Iruka was many things, but no onmyouji, able to command spirits and yokai.

Iruka lifted his head to look him in the eye, face flushed and hands knotted into fists.”No.” His voice was surprisingly quiet. “All I can do is give her a framework, to see what she wants to see. I can no more summon an unnamed spirit back from the dead than you can.”

“So this will...?” Genius he might be, but the current workings of Iruka’s mind were unfathomable.

“Show her what she most needs to see.” Iruka slumped, looking back down at his hands. “If I can manage to tweak the seals one more time, I can invoke this. What she sees depends on how much of her is left, but our best chance is this. If it works, she’ll break the seal from the inside.”

“So you can’t do this without me, huh?” Kakashi felt more in control now. If he had to be helping Iruka, it meant he could keep the man from doing something stupid enough to get himself killed.

Iruka’s shoulders drew up, muscles bunching in his arms and back. He turned to face Kakashi squarely, challenge in his dark eyes. “Oh, I _can_.” Then he softened and reached up to frame Kakashi’s face with warm fingers. “But I’d rather do it together.”

That simple declaration eased some of that terrible tightness that had been growing in Kakashi’s chest since Iruka had told him he had a way to help. Sighing, he tugged down his mask to smile at Iruka. “You only had to ask.”

Iruka claimed his mouth in a kiss that was both fierce and sweet, a thing of battling tongues and nipping teeth, leavened by breathless murmurs and gentle touches.

How long they stood there, locked together, Kakashi couldn’t have said, but it seemed all too short a time later that Iruka regretfully pushed him away.

Iruka leaned back against the counter, flushed and breathing a bit fast, but smiling now. “You realize we’ll have to do this without letting Tsunade-sama know, right? She’d try to stop me.”

Kakashi tipped his hitai-ate up for a quick look at Iruka’s chakra. It was at a very low ebb, the warm copper-gold washed out to a pale yellow. “She’d probably be right to,” he cautioned, tugging the cloth over his eye again, his stomach knotting up painfully. “You’ll be burning your own life energy before too much longer.”

Iruka’s smile faltered, but that determination still shone in his gaze. “We don’t really have a choice. Tsunade thinks the chakra drain into the seal is steady, but the stronger the spirit grows, the faster she draws. We don’t have much longer at all.”

Kakashi’s reticence couldn’t stand in the face of the truth in Iruka’s words and he nodded slowly. “How do you want to do this? I assume you’ll need to be under a genjutsu again to be able to see the seal.”

Iruka frowned thoughtfully. “I could do it from memory, I think. It’s how I was going to do it before you agreed to help me. But it would be easier if I could see what I was doing. Plus, you know, I’d really rather be able to dodge her if she comes after me again.” His mouth twitched into a wry smile.

Kakashi surreptitiously flexed his bandaged hand. It ached and itched, warning of the damage he’d do if he used it, but he doubted they’d have time to put Iruka into a tranced genjutsu again before being interrupted. Pulling a kunai out of his waist-pouch, he cut away the bandages.

Iruka studied his still-bruised and slightly swollen fingers for a moment. “Sakura’s going to kill you, you know?”

Kakashi snorted. “She’d have to get in line. Right behind Tsunade.”

Iruka chuckled and concealed the paper inside his vest before unlocking the door and peering cautiously into the corridor. He nodded and slipped out.

Kakashi followed. He found himself a little surprised that Iruka unconsciously adopted his normal position; on Kakashi’s blind side and a pace ahead. In a way it was reassuring and in another, it disturbed his internal balance. There was so much wrong with this; helping Iruka do something that might— very likely _would_ — cause him harm, disobeying the Hokage, and yet still falling into familiar patterns.

The hallway was still echoingly empty and they reached Raidou and Genma’s room without interference. Kakashi checked the observation area first and was pleased to note it was empty. Inside the room were only the two men, the ninken, and that cold, hating presence.

Pakkun looked up, alerted by something in Kakashi’s presence. His drooping eyes narrowed and his jowly face looked solemn. “Boss?”

“We’re going to do something to help them.” Kakashi rested his good hand on Buru’s large head. “I’ll need you to stand watch and see that we’re not interrupted. Also,” he gestured in the vague direction of the spirit. “Keep an eye on her.”

Iruka went to one of the walls and pulled a piece of chalk from one of his pockets. He began to sketch something that looked a lot like some of the sigils he had inked on the paper.

While he was distracted, Kakashi knelt so he was on level with the pug perched on the foot of Raidou’s bed. “If something happens,” he breathed quietly so Iruka wouldn’t hear. “—Get Tsunade.”

“What are you idiots planning?” Pakkun growled softly.

“Not me,” Kakashi amended. “This is Iruka-sensei’s show. I’m just helping him.”

“Boss,” Shiba rumbled. “He’s right on the edge of complete chakra drain.”

Kakashi had to swallow past a lump to answer the dog. “I know.”

Iruka stepped back and surveyed his work. Nodding, he turned to Kakashi. “Ready when you are.”

Kakashi shot one last look at the ninken and rose easily to his feet. He stepped in front of Iruka, trying not to look as troubled as he was. He wanted to say something, anything, but the words stuck in his throat. Instead, he lifted his hands in the first sign for the genjutsu. His broken hand throbbed, but he forced it to continue. He held tight to the image that he wanted Iruka to see; the world as it appeared through his Sharingan eye. When his fingers bent into the shape of the last sign, Kakashi wished he could reforge that link between them from the first time he had done this. He exhaled on a sigh and let go of the jutsu.

Iruka went utterly still.

Kakashi sighed through his teeth and opened his Sharingan, feeling the throb of it through his skull. He’d used it too much in the past few hours, but it didn’t matter in the face of what Iruka was doing. 

Silently, Akino shoved his shaggy head under Kakashi’s aching hand. Kakashi started and was about to pull his extremely sore hand away when the world went just slightly out of focus and he lost the ability to distinguish anything in the red end of the spectrum. He’d looked through the eyes of his ninken enough times to realize that Akino was deliberately sharing with him.

Though Iruka stood unmoving in front of him, Kakashi could also see a second, shadowy version of the chuunin sensei moving closer to the bed, where the tortured creature that had once been a woman and a ninja crouched, mad blue eyes fastened on Iruka. With a start, Kakashi realized that the dogs could see into the genjutsu that allowed Iruka to see the ghost.

Unconsciously, his aching fingers tightened in Akino’s shaggy coat.

Iruka approached the ghost openly, his hands spread wide to indicate he was sporting no visible weapons. His lips moved, but Kakashi could hear nothing.

Kakashi tensed, wishing there was some other way to help Iruka. This feeling of being helpless on the outside gnawed at him. He _hated_ it. Clenching his undamaged hand, all he could do was watch.

Iruka said something to the ghost, one hand moving to illustrate his words.

The vengeful ghost bunched herself for attack, lips drawn back off of bloodied teeth. Her mouth moved, but not in recognizable words, like she was screaming or hissing furiously at Iruka.

Urushi rumbled a warning at her and she started and glanced down, quite as if she had forgotten the dogs.

While her attention was diverted, Iruka moved. This time his physical body moved in time with him, drawing out the slip of paper. He held it close to his face and breathed words over it, his warm-gold chakra melding with the paper.

The paper incandesced, glowing so bright Kakashi was actually forced to squint. It became a flame of pure white light, cupped in Iruka’s hands, an anthropomorphous shape that drew the eye to it.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Kakashi noted the circle Iruka had drawn on the wall glowing with a fainter version of the same light.

Iruka’s shoulders shivered with a heavy sigh and he offered up his cupped hands to the ghost, like an offering.

Still snarling, she looked uncomprehendingly on the glowing light. Iruka urged it toward her, hands dropping away to leave it hanging unsupported in the air.

The ghost drifted forward, still trailing blood and malice like a shroud. But the closer she got to the light, the more hesitation came into her expression. Her head tilted to one side and she regarded the light unblinkingly for a long drawn-out moment.

Kakashi felt more than saw Iruka falter, his energy failing. He reached out helplessly, seeing that pure light dimming.

But Iruka rallied, forcing more of his chakra into his creation.

That moment of weakness had cost him, though. The ghost lost that hesitancy and lashed out at Iruka with a taloned hand, raking furrows across his chest. Something spattered, warm and wet, onto the back of Kakashi’s hand. Though it was a dull brown in his shared vision, Kakashi knew the color of that scarlet all too well and almost leapt forward, halted only by the grip of his hand on Akino’s fur. He hadn’t thought the ghost could physically harm Iruka!

Iruka staggered, but held fast. His face, pale and thin in the shining light of his creation, was set in lines of concentration. The gleaming shape brightened, intensifying until it was nearly blinding.

The shade that had been Onari Miyake in life froze in place, face irresistibly drawn toward the light. She came up out of her crouch, blinking. Her mouth opened and shaped a word, falteringly. The bloodied hand she’d held clawed near her abdomen came up, stretching toward the light, and for the first time, Kakashi could see what she’d held.

His stomach churned at the sight of the tiny figure, lying limp in a pool of gore in her palm. The man who had killed her had been unimaginably cruel, performing such an atrocity. It was no surprise she had gone mad, not if one of the last things she had seen in her life was her unborn child ripped brutally from her womb.

She lifted her hand until it nearly touched the glowing shape, a look of wonder smoothing her pain-ravaged features. The tiny, wretched thing in her palm vanished into a swirl of light, whirling up to meld with the greater glow, which took on a more definite, familiar shape.

The woman-ghost spoke again, repeating something over and over, tears filling increasingly sane and joyous eyes. She stretched both hands upward, injuries fading until she looked as she must have in life. She grasped the glowing light, which settled into the shape of a child that she cradled against her chest.

As if that had been some sort of signal, the glowing circle on the wall brightened, the center of it shimmering with radiance so glorious it was unbearable.

Onari Miyake turned toward it, face a mask of joy. Graceful as a doe, she sprang toward it, leaving behind tatters of that malignant purple-edged black. She had nearly reached it when it flickered and dimmed.

Instinctively, Kakashi turned his attention back to Iruka.

Iruka’s face was white and grim, standing by sheer force of will.

Kakashi could see the bright spark of his chakra fading, flickering out like a dying candle.

Iruka wavered, going down to one knee.

“No!” Heart in his throat, Kakashi reached out for Iruka on instinct. He had to do something!

His hand touched the sensei’s arm. His desperation must have triggered something, because with that touch he felt the link he’d forged between them earlier flare into sudden life, blazing like a forest fire and supporting the guttering spark that was Iruka’s chakra.

Iruka took a deep breath, and the circle brightened again, just in time for the ghost to reach it. She sprang into it and it went out like a snuffed candle.

Iruka grinned at him, his pride echoing down the link, right before he passed out, eyes rolling back in his head.

Right about then, Tsunade kicked the door in.


	6. Conclusions

It hadn’t been pretty, the last few days. Tsunade had been enraged at the two of them risking their lives like that and had berated Kakashi for the better part of four hours, after she had spent close to two hours rebuilding chakra-pathways Iruka had blown out in his last ditch effort to hold the pathway for the ghost open. Then she’d whacked Kakashi upside the head, and rebuilt his damaged hand before slapping it into a rigid plaster cast.

Iruka had been unconscious for all of it, lucky bastard. Kakashi could do without another of those tirades for the rest of his life. And that was all before Sakura had blown her top at him for aiding and abetting Iruka’s dangerous plan.

Iruka had been hospitalized and Tsunade had confined Kakashi to Iruka’s room with a fierce glare and the threat of a chakra-blocking collar. Not that he’d really wanted to go anywhere, with the link still raw and wide-open between them, feeding him Iruka’s pain from his savaged channels. Tsunade had examined what she could of it and pronounced herself baffled. She thought she might be able to do more when Iruka had awakened, but for now was content to let Kakashi fumble his way through it by himself. 

Their chakra was woven together almost seamlessly and Kakashi was painfully aware of Iruka’s dreams and nightmares, among other things.

He’d finally managed to block out most of Iruka’s sleep-muddled feelings and thoughts, but it hadn’t been easy and had given him a headache comparable to overusing the Sharingan. But the feeling was addictive, and he would let down his shields and let himself revel in the sensation of the connection between them again and again.

Kakashi had managed to just drift off into a nap in the uncomfortable chair. (He outright refused to sleep in the other bed; it reminded him too much of being trapped in the hospital after various life-threatening injuries.) 

Iruka woke him with a scream, flailing up out of the blankets like a madman. Kakashi found himself battered by Iruka’s fear and a black-cloud of self-loathing.

“Iruka!” he shouted.

Iruka stared at him, wide-eyed and owlish, for a second. “K-Kakashi?” he croaked.

The feeling cut off so abruptly, Kakashi would have thought the link was gone if not for the sense of Iruka still tangled in his chakra.

Iruka sat up amid the tumbled bedding, emotions firmly locked away. Kakashi could feel him prodding thoughtfully at his end of the link, like one might probe a sore tooth, worrying it. “What the hell happened here?” Iruka rasped.

Kakashi fetched him a glass of water and explained what he knew of the link while Iruka sipped at it.

Iruka hmmed thoughtfully and sent a curling feeling of mischief down the bond. His mouth curled up into a playful smile. “I could be convinced that this is a good thing.”

Kakashi swallowed, a little unnerved by Iruka’s easy acceptance. So he changed the subject. “What was all that when you woke up?”

Iruka’s amusement vanished and he shuttered everything away. Kakashi idly thought he needed to figure out how to do that, but for the moment, he wanted to know about that thick feeling of self-recrimination he’d felt from Iruka. That wasn’t like the sensei who’d teased him into their odd relationship.

Iruka hunched in his shoulders, like he was trying to block out the world. “I’d tell you it’s nothing, but I already know you wouldn’t believe me,” he grumbled. “In a way I fooled that poor creature into believing her murdered child was there, and used that to manipulate her into escaping the seal that held her... and to what? She’s dead now, and I did that to her.”

Kakashi sighed and settled down on the edge of the bed. “She was dead long before you did anything. All you did was give her hope and break her out of the madness and hate that filled her. I saw her face too, Iruka. She was sane and happy there at the end. And wherever or whatever she believes she’s going to; it has to be better than what was done to her.”

Iruka looked up and slowly a smile crawled across his face. It was still tinged with bitterness, but there was acceptance there too. “And Genma and Raidou?” he asked.

“They’re recovering nicely,” Kakashi laughed. “And driving the med-nins and Tsunade to distraction with their escapades. So far they stand at four escape attempts, five attempts to kill each other... or have sex, but how can one tell the difference with those two? — and various tries to seduce the medics into helping them with their escape attempts/murder/sexcapades.”

“So, business as usual, then?” Iruka chuckled dryly.

Kakashi nodded. “You were right and the jutsu broke apart after she escaped. The dogs reported the other spirits fled when the seal broke, so no need to worry about more vengeful ghosts.”

Iruka smiled and relaxed back against his pillows. “Good. I have no desire to attempt that again. A ghost-talker I am not.”

“So what are you then?” Kakashi regarded him with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. Despite everything, they had fallen back into easy camaraderie. Kakashi liked it that way. Even though their relationship was still an uncertain, ill-defined thing, he was content with it and with the bossy, sexy and mischievous Iruka that came with it.

Iruka grinned back. “I’m an academy sensei, a mission room worker, occasional lover of a neurotic jounin who drives me crazy, smells like dog and leaves porn strewn around my apartment, big brother to the loudest ninja ever born, and far more trouble than I’m worth.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kotodama-refers to the Japanese belief that mystical powers dwell in words and names. English translations include "soul of language", "spirit of language", "power of language", "power word", "magic word", and "sacred sound". The notion of kotodama presupposes that sounds can magically affect objects, and that ritual word usages can influence our environment, body, mind, and soul.
> 
> From Wikipedia


End file.
